Defecting for a chance

Tuesday

Jul 17, 2012 at 8:52 PMMar 27, 2013 at 7:49 AM

By KYLE GLASER, STAFF WRITER

As the days and weeks ticked by, Roenis Elias waited for the phone call.

The left-handed pitcher had already made the biggest decision of his life: He would risk everything and defect from his native Cuba in an attempt to reach the U.S. and realize his dream of playing major league baseball.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting.

Waiting for the call, where the voice on the other end  whom Elias did not know  would tell him they were leaving.

"My mom knew that my plans were to leave," said Elias through translator Antonio Gutierrez, the High Desert Mavericks clubhouse manager. "I didn't say anything to my dad. No one else knew."

On October 26, 2010, the call came, instructing Elias to go to the coast at 3 a.m., where a boat would be waiting.

Once the phone rang and the mysterious voice on the other end delivered its instructions, Elias' old life was over, and his new life began.

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As Elias, 23, sits in the stands at Stater Bros. Stadium, he recalls the nearly eight-month journey taking him from Cuba to Mexico and finally to the U.S. rather stoically, almost matter-of-factly. For him, Cuba is his past, one that he will never forget, but the U.S. is his future.

"My situation wasn't very good at home, we were pretty much living off each other," he recalled. "I felt bad for my family, not being able to have all that they needed. I made the choice to try and come over and make a better life for myself.

"I never previously had the thought to come over. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I felt it, and I wanted it."

In his second season of professional baseball in America, Elias has worked his way from the Mavericks' No. 5 starter on Opening Day to the No. 1 starter by July. The 23-year old southpaw has posted a 7-5 record with a 4.31 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 104 1-3 innings pitched so far this season.

"I knew I had a good chance (to succeed) if I could come to the U.S. and play," Elias said. "I just decided I wanted go over to the U.S. and play Major League baseball. That's what was on my mind the whole time."

Mavericks manager Pedro Grifol  himself the son of a Cuban defector who grew up in Cuban-American neighborhoods in Florida  sees Elias as a part of the parent-club Seattle Mariners' future.

"He's got the talent," said Grifol, the former farm director for the Mariners. "He has to work on his emotions, he's gotta work on his command, reading bats, there's a bunch of things. He's got the talent to be a big leaguer and ... I expect him to have a nice career."

Elias' new life, that of a minor league baseball player, is hardly glamorous. The long bus rides, fast food meals and stays in low-end motels aren't exactly what many dreamers have in mind when they think of playing baseball for a living.

But compared to growing up in a state of poverty in Cuba and playing in the emotional, pressure-packed Cuban leagues  where having a bad game is akin to disgracing your entire city or country  the minor leagues don't seem so difficult.

"The one common denominator is if you ask (Cuban players) about pressure, this is not pressure for them," Grifol said. "Pressure for them is that anticipation to the day they defect from Cuba, knowing that if they got caught, there's no telling what could happen.

"Once you go through that experience in life, knowing that you're leaving and you're risking your life out in the ocean or you're risking getting caught and having to face whoever you have to face back home, once you go through that experience, this isn't pressure."

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When the phone call came, Elias drove to the coast under the cover of darkness. There, he was shoved onto a small boat with 26 other individuals, including five baseball players who shared Elias' dream of playing professional baseball.

If Elias was caught trying to leave or if the boat was intercepted in international waters, he faced a wide range of possible punishments: a long jail sentence, banishment from baseball in Cuba, 24-hour surveillance placed on him, or any combination of unpleasant sanctions.

"Once I got on the boat, it was just like do or die," Elias said. "I didn't really have time for fear. It was either get caught and go to prison or we get there."

The boat  which was organized by people Elias said he did not know  departed without a problem. For the next 30 hours, Elias and the other passengers sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, braving the high seas and hoping they were not caught by authorities in international waters that would send them back to Cuba.

Finally, with a backpack full of clothes as his only possession, Elias landed in Cancun, Mexico  he was officially a Cuban defector.

While the first step of successfully escaping Cuba was completed, things did not necessarily get easier for Elias. He was now in a foreign country without a visa, did not have a baseball team to play for and had no way of getting to the U.S.

Elias said he and the five other baseball players on the boat "laid low" in a hotel room in Cancun, biding their time until they could get the paperwork necessary to be in Mexico  a process Elias declined to elaborate on.

Once the proper paperwork was acquired, he traveled nearly 1,600 miles to Monterrey, Mexico, where he had a tryout with the local professional team. He didn't get cut, but he didn't exactly make the team either.

Monterrey had an "A" team for its top players, and a "B" team for its less talented group. Elias was placed on the "B" team and told he didn't have a chance to be signed by a Major League franchise.

Undeterred, Elias finished out the season and spent the offseason in Monterrey working out and improving. He attended one open tryout where a few Major League scouts were present but received no offers.

He attended a second open tryout in May of 2011, and this time he caught the eye of a Seattle Mariners scout. He was signed on May 3 and made his U.S. debut on July 17 in rookie ball, more than eight months after climbing onto a tiny boat and leaving the only home he'd ever known.

"From the time I was in Mexico, (playing in the U.S.) was all I could think about," Elias said. "To actually put on a pro uniform and step onto the field in the U.S., it was the best feeling I've ever had."

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Now, Elias is starting his new life. He has applied for U.S. citizenship  a process that will take three to four years  and has married and set up residence in Austin, Texas with his new wife. He still communicates with his family back in Cuba weekly via email and phone calls, but he will not see them again for many years. He says he does not expect to see his family until he becomes a U.S. citizen, at which point he will be able to return to Cuba without risking harassment or imprisonment.

And as he starts his new life, the young southpaw keeps pitching and climbing the minor league ladder, working toward his dream of reaching the big leagues.

Kyle Glaser can be reached at kglaser@vvdailypress.com or at (760) 951-6274.